If you're feeling left out, AT&T has an announcement that might make you feel better (but probably worse). The company is rolling out a new unlimited voice, text, and data plan that costs $100 per month for one line, as long as you're also a DirecTV (or U-Verse) customer. You know, because AT&T bought the satellite TV provider in 2014, and the carrier would love to make money off that acquisition.

The price amounts to $60 a month for data plus a $40 access fee. For comparison, $50 a month gets you 5GB of data with a Mobile Share plan. The next bracket, 15GB, costs $100 a month for data alone.

Additional lines cost another $40 each, but folks who want a fourth one can get it for free. Free-ish, anyway. You will have to pay $220 for the first couple of months, then AT&T will apply a $40 credit thereafter.

Like with grandfathered plans, AT&T reserves the right to throttle lines that go over 22GB a month during periods of network congestion.

DirecTV plans start at $19.99 a month for twelve months with a two-year service agreement. After that period is over, the fee shoots up to $50. This means you will pay for at least a year of satellite at $20 a month followed by a second year at $50. You also have to deal with the cost of getting the satellite installed at your home.

Under the best of circumstances, you're looking at paying AT&T $120 a month at the beginning for a single line plus a satellite box that you now have to stick under your TV to get unlimited data. And that price is only going to go up after a year.

Press Release

A family of four may now get unlimited video streaming, data, talk and text for $180 per month*

AT&T is kicking off the New Year with a new unlimited wireless data offer for its new and existing TV subscribers who like watching their favorite videos and TV shows almost everywhere. Beginning tomorrow, new and existing AT&T consumer wireless customers who have or add AT&T DIRECTV® or AT&T U-Verse TV may get the new AT&T Unlimited Plan, offering customers more data to use for watching video, playing games and surfing the web on their mobile devices.

The new AT&T Unlimited Plan includes unlimited data and unlimited talk and text. Customers can get the AT&T Unlimited Plan on a smartphone for $100 per month. Additional smartphones are $40 per month each, and a fourth smartphone can be added at no additional cost.*

The new AT&T Unlimited Plan is the first of many integrated video and mobility offers the company plans to announce in 2016. Also, AT&T plans to launch a wide-range of new video entertainment options later this year.

If you are a new or existing DIRECTV or U-Verse TV subscriber but not an AT&T wireless subscriber, for a limited time, you can receive $500 in credits when you switch to the AT&T Unlimited Plan with an eligible trade-in, and buy a smartphone on AT&T NextSM. And, if you are an AT&T wireless customer, but not a DIRECTV subscriber, you can add a TV package beginning at $19.99 per month for 12 months, with a 24 month agreement.

“Our new unlimited plan is our best offer yet. It’s the perfect reward for our valued customers who like to take advantage of our integrated offers of TV and wireless services,” said Ralph de la Vega, CEO of AT&T Mobile and Business Solutions. “Video traffic continues to grow on our network as fast as ever because people enjoy viewing their favorite video content on their favorite devices.”

“We’ve got the content consumers want, we’re delivering it to the devices they want, and we’re making it as easy as ever for them to consume as much as they want,” he said. “And, they will get a high-quality video streaming experience from the start. No compromises in video quality.”

You can also add additional devices to the plan. For example, add a smartphone or tablet for $40 per month or $10 for a smart watch. If you don’t need unlimited data for your tablet, you can take advantage of our new 1 GB tablet plan for $10 per month, exclusively available for customers on the AT&T Unlimited Plan.

- See more at: http://about.att.com/story/unlimited_plan_for_wireless_and_directv_subscribers.html

Oh, I'll totally un-cut my TV subscription and deal with the hassles of satellite just to get unlimited data when I rarely eat through half of the 6GB AT&T gives me a month!

Nice perk for DTV subscribers, but the chance this nets them any new customers seems low.

Frettfreak

I completely agree with you except the "hassels" of satellite TV.... Have had directv for 7 years and really zero issues with service. Issues with the company for sure (billing and just general dirty practices) but I had more service issues when I was a cable subscriber.

atlouiedog

What a time to be alive.

Satellite TV used to be a real hassle. Switching channels sometimes meant waiting for a motor to turn the dish and point it at a different satellite. That's when the dishes were like 8' in diameter and neighbors would complain about the eyesore.

Biff Wonsley

Yeah, but searching for channels was most of the fun of big dish satellite TV. Even more so with the transition to digital. It was like playing with my shortwave radio as a kid. You never knew what you might find.

Switched to DirecTV 10 years ago. No interest in AT&T, but despite any horror stories, never had a problem. A competent installer makes the difference.

I really can't see any "synergy" happening with the DTV/AT&T combo. When I think satellite TV, my next thought isn't mobile phone or home internet service. Especially with their haphazard deployment of Uverse. In my town, with Google Fiber, TWC & Grande, you'd think they'd up their game. They have not.

ccccc

haha i had a neighbor that had one of those. i could always tell when he was watching porn b/c the dish would rotate to a specific direction.

For sure, satellite is generally great if you have decent sky LOS in your area, which is definitely many more places than it probably was 20 years ago. I don't hear about satellite flickering out when it rains too much anymore.

I'm more speaking to mounting the dish and dealing with satellite in an urban environment. Good luck if you're an apartment renter. And if there's an inconveniently placed building taller than yours in the area, it can be pretty much hopeless. I live in West LA and while a lot of people do have satellite, it can be incredibly finicky, and many buildings just can't have it because the dish would need to be facing into the wall of an adjacent structure.

vwnut13

Had my first experience with Satellite TV yesterday. It started raining, the TV lost signal, and I missed a touchdown.

Reginald Spence II

LOL. Hope you caught some highlights.

drksilenc

I would say that it is improperly installed. Rain isnt enough to block it. A thunderstorm on the other had might.

yankeesusa

Tell that to the hundreds of users in florida that lose signal every afternoon when it rains.

Mike

If you're in rural areas, down south, and on the west coast Satellite is awesome. If your in the midwest, north, or east coast cable is th best choice since the weather gets nasty.

Doris Jones

I have scored 187k dollars previous year working online and I am a full time student. I am attached with an online business entity that I heard about and I have earned such great cash. It is really user friendly and I feel myself lucky to have that option. Why not try this.

There's most definitely a cost, but American carriers are grossly overcharging for it.

YaKillaCJ

U got that right... Grossly grossly extremely overcharging. It's only more for the electricity and maybe maintenance work.

Christopher Bement

Lol what a joke.

TSON1

"Starting next month, those customers will pay slightly more than what new subscribers fork over for 2GB of data."
Not really? If you count the base plan + the unlimited addon, wouldn't it be like $95?

Justin W

They're raising prices on all grand-fathered unlimited plan users by $5 - that's what he's referring to. It's going up by $5 - I think it's $35 for unlimited now instead of the $30.

I think you might be misunderstanding me. So for example, with AT&T metered plans, you have a $25 line access fee, then $30 for 2GB of data. This is a total of $55/mo, plus the price of your AT&T Next plan.

Old plans, IIRC, were, for example "Family Talk Nation 550 with Rollover" for $60/mo, plus a $35 unlimited data addon ($30 prior to increase). This would put you at $95/mo, plus the price of your AT&T Next plan.

Pretty huge difference.

Biga173rd

They must be joking.

Alan S

I'm sorry but 22GB of data for 100$ a month is NOT unlimited! Meanwhile I pay about 25$ a month for 2TB of 4G here in Ireland, I'm always shocked by the prices American customers pay in comparison. Yes there is a huge difference in size but still, 100$ is crazy.

JG

2TB of 4G for $25 you say... Plus getting to hear the sexy Irish accent all day...

Note to self, move to Ireland if Trump wins the election...

Alan S

Well it's a topup of €20 every 30 days which is probably more closer to 23$ now but regardless it also includes 3,000 texts, 3,000 own network minutes and free weekend calls. I'm not sure if Americans are aware of the concept of a topup but essentially you go to a shop buy your choice of denomination, type the code into your phone and it adds the amount to your phone, usually with an offer too. It's not a bill as such, the Credit can also be used on Google Play or used as Xbox/PSN credit! It's a great offer.

Bru [971]

This is really expensive.... In France i have unlimited voice + unlimited text + 50Go of 4G + free roaming almost everywhere for only 19€.

And there was a deal last december pricing all this at 3.99€ during one year

master94

Yea, well here carriers like to rob us.

Superguy

Could be worse ... our Canadian neighbors have it MUCH worse than we do. Take a look at their plans and options some time.

ccccc

please compare the size of france to the size of the united states.

Bru [971]

With more consumers in the US, the plans should be cheaper, don't you think so?

master94

There goes the "we have a limited amount of bandwidth for our customers " argument. Did anyone actually believe them when they said that?

Steve Freeman

Just my two cents as a longtime (5 or so year) U-Verse subscriber...don't do it. I've had their TV and Internet packages, and if you can get TV service in your area from another provider, go for it. The GUI on their boxes is slow, and the remotes are frequently unreliable due to signal interference. Also, in the last 5 years with them I've went through literally 4-5 DVR's, about the same number of remotes, and 4-5 routers. And they JUST adopted Wireless-N routers like 3-6 months ago (yeah, they like keeping on top of technology).

Their internet service is OK though, truthfully. I've only had a handful of outages since I got their service, and when it works, it's fine. However, for the price I'm paying ($60), I should be getting better than 18 MB down/2 MB up. I keep hearing about people getting speeds in the hundreds of MB's, and I just keep thinking to myself "Yeah, that would be nice". And no, I'm not in a rural area at all, I'm in the suburbs of Cleveland.

Time Warner here, and I get about 300/20 with my plan, which is their highest for now. Believe it costs $90/month on its own probably. But I have a bundle, so... Slightly less for me.

Jim Fox

I've never dealt with AT&T before, but have just moved to a rural area without cable internet. Could you tether to an AT&T phone and use it as a hotspot for Internet access?

JayB

Not on the unlimited plan.

YaKillaCJ

Cell Service: $38 - Unlimited Talk/Text/Web (3GB of high speed)
Home Internet: $50 - 50 GB/s
Subscriptions: $17 Hulu Plus & Netflix
$105 Total
I cut the cable/satellite cord years ago. Little to no commercials, more content, better control over content. Dare I even include Kodi (+Genesis), Torrents, etc. Then HBO and Stars can be had without a full tv service.

Daniel Marcus

This is so complicated to take advantage of, it's barely more than a nod to "huh, consumers seem to want carriers to offer an unlimited plan, but we still don't really want to offer one."

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